While discussing with the client the project we analyzed how to make this translation project cost effective due to the amount of text, between old text and the new one we are talking about million of words. And they want to translate them all.

The client was asking me if we know of any corporate solution which will allow them to build a Vocabulary of words/terms/phrases.

We were also discussing a easy way to upload the text into the website which can be handled by building a simple script, but maybe there is already a solution out there.

I know that Multicorpora and Trados offer corporate solutions for large volumes of text , big websites and repeating text.

With our Project Manager we discussed to use Trados TM but I have the feeling that there might be another way.

Do you have any suggestion?

Thanks and have a good weekend!

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Interesting project, indeed. In order to give you advice about this, I need further details. Could you elaborate a little bit about the following points:

- What do you mean with "old text" and "new text"?
- Do you want to build
a) a translation memory
b) a glossary of terms or
c) a repository of sentences?

If you mean (a), does your client already have a bilingual web?
If you mean (b) or (c), what's your exact goal? Having a first database of terms/sentences to translate BEFORE translating the whole website?

- Which technology is the website built on? PHP, some CMS, plain html...?
- What's the exact relationship between "user generated texts" and the rest of the site? Could you provide more details?

>>I know that Multicorpora and Trados offer corporate solutions for large volumes of text , big websites and repeating text.

You're right, but be ready to invest many $$$$ for that. Even if your project is million words worth, you should carefully consider your ROI for that.

Feel free to contact me in private if you do not want to discuss the details publicly. Project management is one of the services we offer.

Best regards

Marco Cevoli
Qabiria

[Edited at 2009-02-28 13:02 GMT]

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Localising a website varies in complexity depending on end client requirements. It sounds like this is something you and your client will need to think about in a lot more detail.

Firstly, with such a high volume of words, you definitely need to work with TM software of some sort, not only to speed up the translation process and ensure consistency but also to keep the costs down for your customer. A key consideration for your client should be to ensure future updates to the site are consistent with legacy content and the only way to do this will be to create both, TMs and a terminology repository of some sort.

It is likely that your client's website is driven by a Content Management System (CMS). If this is the case, it most likely supports an export functionality that will allow you to get an 'XML dump' out of the CMS to form the basis of your quotation. This is the best way to ensure you do not miss any hidden content such as error messages etc. In the same way that content can be exported, it can then also be easily imported back into the CMS once localisation is complete. This not only saves time but also serves to eliminate the introduction of errors through manual copy/pasting.

Once you have the XML, HTML or PHP source files, you will need to ensure that you use a tool (there are many out there) to extract only translatable content for the purpose of quoting and translation and 'protect' the encoding of the files to ensure they are not broken during the process. The translator will then translate in tag editor and some simple post processing will then allow for for the content to be married up with the corresponding code again.

During your QA, watch out for the following:

1. Missing translations
2. You have used the correct character encoding e.g. Unicode, UTF8 etc.
3. Any graphics have been localised
4. Integrity of encoding is preserved (run a file compare tool)

If your client suggests logging into their CMS and translating directly within it, you should strongly advise against it as it makes the use of TM impossible and makes quality assurance and retrospective checks very difficult.

My personal view is that the client's interests would probably be best served working with an agency to project manage the work, offer guidance and manage the engineering processes.

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